After years of growth Majestic's Commercial division hit the buffers this year when even its chief executive, Rowan Gormley, said its half year results were "disappointing". Ben Nicholl, the head of the on-trade division, explains how he plans to get to the business back on track, in an article first published on The Buyer

I doubt that. I think they’ve stopped sending them out. But just look at the numbers. We as a nation are now prepared, if not happy, to buy an average bottle of wine that is closer to £6 than £5 for the first time. OK that move to £5.56 at the turn of the year might be all down to inflationary pressures, including the 15% drop in value of sterling, but it means the average bottle price is up 19p a bottle in the last two years, and that's not even factoring in the latest duty hike in March.

But surely price is always the first thing any wine buyer looks at - for trade and consumer?

It certainly used to be, and is still a hugely significant deciding factor, but our overall relationship with “price” per se is changing. At least it has since June 23, 2016. That decision to leave the EU also set in motion a series of economic pressures that have resulted in grocery inflation now sitting at 3.2% and overall inflation not far behind at a four-year high of 2.9%. The impact of that on the average shopper is the equivalent of having to do an extra seven shops a year or £133 per household, says Kantar Worldpanel. So, yes, on the one hand consumers are still very sensitive about the individual price of any given product on the shelf. But when we realise prices are going up across the board (butter by 20p, tinned salmon up 14%, plus similar hikes on clothing, energy, or even computer games) then it’s the collective impact that becomes the issue, rather than the individual cost of a bottle of wine.

OK, tell me more?

You only have to look at the national newspaper headlines over the last fortnight to see how our collective attitude towards “price” is having to change due to Brexit. For the first time families will have felt the direct backlash of a weak pound by having to pay more for their annual holiday and seen how far your pound goes when travelling abroad.

This is all getting a bit political. Thought we were here to talk about wine.

Bear with me. You don’t need to spend too much time on social media to see how divisive the whole Brexit issue has become. But equally we know as a country we voted to leave the EU, better or worse. A fact demonstrated in a YouGov poll last week that found three out of five people who voted to leave regard "significant damage to the British economy to be a price worth paying" for Brexit. What’s more 39% of the nearly 5,000 people surveyed said it would be worth losing their job, or having a family member lose theirs, in order to leave the EU. So if prices are going up then that’s a cost we are prepared to pay.

That’s all very interesting but what does it mean for us all in the wine trade?

Well, it’s important we understand the consumer we are trying to sell to and there’s no doubting we are all living and working in a very different retail environment to just over a year ago. But there are also long standing factors at play here, regardless of Brexit. We have talked before about having to serve the post-recession consumer that has never been more price aware or sensitive. But at the same time you only have to look at the boom in Prosecco to see how even price conscious consumers are happy to treat themselves - on a regular basis.

If that’s the case why are Aldi and Lidl continuing to do so well?

They are indeed, but look closely at their figures and it’s not just all about saving money that has made Aldi and Lidl the darlings of the high street. It has had great success with its premium own-label wines and has found selling wine at £15 plus a bottle has all been part of its strategy to attract more middle class shoppers through its doors.And the multiples?It’s also where the big supermarkets are succeeding. It is their collective sales of premium own-label, up 13.9%, that is driving the grocery market compared to branded growth of just 0.9%. The fact supermarket own brand lines now have a record 51% share of grocery spend shows how we have all become value conscious consumers.

So in a nutshell?

We might all in an ideal world like to still have our cake and eat it, otherwise known as everyday low pricing. But in these unforeseen pre-Brexit days, we are now far more understanding that unforeseen economic and political factors mean we are going to have pay a bit more for our daily bread - including an above average bottle of wine.

Well, that depends on who the Peter and Paul are in the equation. If you mean are we going to be seeing a Matthew Clark or Gallo-themed wine shop on the high street any time soon then probably not. At least not for now. But behind the scenes careful thought is being given as to how wine distributors and producers can get closer to the market by being part of either their own retail operations or working alongside partners in the industry.

How do you mean?

A lot of this activity is taking place already, but under the guise of wine vans and pop-up bars at food and drink festivals, and sporting events around the country. Not a week goes by without news of another wine business running their own pop-up. Be it a wine generic like Vins de Bordeaux running its recent Bordeaux Butterfly Bar at London’s Broadgate Circus. We've even seen big high street names like Aldi and Tesco run their own wine-themed retail pop-up shops. Get it right and you can become a consumer and tourist attraction in your own right. Take Campo Viejo’s well established annual Spanish fiesta and its recent five-day wine and food experience, ‘Fiesta de Color’ near London Waterloo.

What about wine distributors?

Going direct to the consumer is already big business for some major wine distributors. Conviviality even has its own division, Conviviality Trading, that looks after its own events and sampling campaigns. Its Peppermint businesses, for example, is a dedicated outdoor bar event operator managing over 40 events a year. The Wondering Wine Company, which started life at Bibendum, its also now covering 40 plus consumer and sporting events a year selling Conviviality drinks through its fleet of vintage vans and has had a go at running its own pop-up retail store.

What else?

As traditional wine importers become brand developers and owners in their own right then running their own retail - or event - concept is a great way to first trial, develop and then seed those brands with consumers. Copestick Murray, which usually has to rely on its retail partners to sell its wines, is currently promoting its iHeart wine range with a summer tour of festivals and events in its new branded camper van. Buckingham Schenk is running a pop up bar for the Viñalba Argentine wine brand in London this October. Look hard enough and there are plenty of other examples of wine importers doing the same.

So where’s the high street retail angle?

Ah, good question. Yes, the vast majority of this activity has currently been targeted campaigns, mainly at outdoor events, for short periods of time. Restaurants might have evolved out of pop-ups, but wine merchants or retails stores haven’t. But that could well change as distributors look to take more control of their destiny. They might be in charge of sourcing their own wine, but they have no control over how their wines are sold.

OK, sounds interesting.

Major drinks distributors are already providing lots of commercial support to help bars and restaurant groups build their wines sales and manage their drinks lists. It would not be a big leap of faith to turn that support into funding a restaurant, bar or wine merchant to open a retail site (or two, or three) where they would have a lion share of the wines being sold there.

Are you just making this up?

Heaven forbid! But you only have to do a bit of lateral thinking to look at the amount of time being spent by traditional wine distributors on setting up these pop-up bars and events to make you question what the ultimate objective is here. Particularly when you could argue such initiatives are a big distraction from the day job of servicing their customers and getting the right wines to them on time.

So what is going on?

﻿All of this pop-up and events activity is doing one thing. Bringing wine businesses and producers in direct contact with consumers. It is cutting out the middle man. It is allowing them for the first time to get their hands on real, raw consumer data it can use to better understand the business they are in. They don’t have to rely purely on Nielsen, CGA or IRI sales data. They can see and hear with their own eyes and ears how consumers behave when buying not just any wine, but their wine. That’s worth trudging around muddy fields in the summer for. Or better still having a retail store you have a stake in and let the sales data do the work for you.

Thankyou, you give me too much credibility to think that, the reality is more spending time listening closely to how the world of wine now views the UK. Regardless of Brexit and what all that might mean in terms of future trading arrangements, the UK is now being seen in a very different light by most major wine producing countries that it was three, five and most definitely 10 years ago.

How do you mean?

If you think about it major producers in Chile, Australia and South Africa are going to be catching whatever cold is coming out of the UK a lot faster than we get to see it right under our noses.

They have been the first to feel the fall out from the big seismic changes that we are now seeing in how our major supermarkets are behaving and the impact of the slow, but sustained and strategically vital switch in power away from the grocery giants to the discounters. Aldi and Lidl might only even now only hold 12% of the market, but their influence on how the rest of the grocery (and wine) industry is behaving is total.

That’s a bit dramatic isn’t it?

What we often forget about the quite, unassuming, cheap and cheerful image of the discounters is they are, in fact, global retail juggernauts. They may act like minnows, but in reality they are big Great Whites circling the world, slowly dominating where they operate. It means they can operate small buying teams, compared to the big supermarkets, as they are backed up by the huge buying power of their central office. They have a fraction of the operating costs as they have tiny ranges, very limited stocks and are not bogged down by pleasing shareholders every quarter.

But what’s all this got to do with wine? What Aldi and Lidl have done is send shockwaves around the traditional grocers who simply do not currently have the infrastructure to respond. They need big property empires to drive the volume and value sales their shareholders demand. They need big ranges to attract hordes of family shoppers and they also now need to run state of the art online and home delivery operations to satisfy changing shopping behaviour. All of which the discounters don’t need to worry about.

As a result it has seen massive changes to the way the average supermarket wine aisle is now run. For producers and distributors it means buying decisions based, to coin a phrase, “for the few, not the many”.

So the rest of the wine world has felt the after wave of that? Not so much the after wave, but global wine producers were hit with all this months before we saw the impact on shelf. Suddenly guaranteed volumes of wine from what might have been their biggest export market are no longer there anymore. It has forced them to change their export strategies and look at the UK through very different eyes. Yes, it might mean pushing more wines in to the independent merchant and on-trade sectors, but for big volume, co-operative based wines from Old World classic regions that has not been a realistic option. Most big branded wines can’t play in those sectors either.

What are you hearing on the ground then?

Well, it has been interesting to talk to major producers, co-operatives and negociants over the last year and hear how their tone has changed when they talk about the UK. It’s a subtle difference, but, yes, you will still hear them enthusiastically describe the UK as being a “trendsetter” a “key benchmark” a “shop window” for the rest of the world. That has always been the case. But the big difference now is it’s not then followed up with talk of how their sales are increasing and what big plans they have for the future in the UK. What’s more their export managers are spending less time in the UK and concentrating on bigger, more profitable markets around the world.

So we’re becoming a strategic hub?It’s not probably going to be the sales line used by the government’s UK Trade and Investment team, but for large parts of the wine industry, then, yes. The UK is still going to ship and sell a lot of high volume wine, it’s just the number of producers that will benefit is going be greatly diminished.

And the good news?

There’s also plenty of that going round too. The supermarket channel may have become increasingly difficult to crack, but it has resulted in far more interest from wine producers to sell their wines in different channels and to help fuel the growth in small independent distributors selling to niche independent and fine wine merchants, wine bars, and a vast and diverse restaurant and gastro pub scene. The type of agenda-setting outlets and operators that will become the UK’s increasingly premium wine image to broadcast around the rest of the world.

* This article was first published on Grapevine, produced for the London Wine Fair.

I’m not being rude, but it’s all about the economy, stupid. Yes, own label, private brands, exclusive labels, call it what you will, have been enormously important for supermarkets and retailers over the last 30 years. The big difference now is that private label is not just being driven by retailers, but consumers are increasingly changing their shopping habits and voluntarily deserting household brands for a cheaper own label alternative. Average household budgets are being squeezed. Families are having to live with lower than inflation salary rises and increased utility bills and are becoming ever more knowledgeable about how they can cut their basic food and drink bills. Starting with switching more to own label.

Where’s the proof for that?

Everywhere. Analyse the latest end of year trading statements for the major grocers and whilst their headline growth figures are nothing compared to what they were 10 years ago, where they are all doing particularly well is their increase in own-label sales. Tesco’s overall sales might be up 1.9% but they are being driven by a 6% increase in own label. Morrisons says its new ‘The Best’ premium own label line is behind its recent return to form. If you drill down in to individual categories, like wine, then the growth in own label is even more marked.

Any specific figures?

Recent research from Retail Economic shows that 48% of consumers would switch even more to own label if weekly food shopping bills go up by 3%. Kantar Worldpanel has average food bills up by 2.3% on this last time last year and some analysts are predicting average 8% price rises for products from the EU over the next two years.

So what’s fuelling this?

Well, a number of factors are at play here. Firstly, the fact own label has been a stable part of our dinner table for the last 30 years means we are all quite comfortable with the idea of buying retailer own brands. Particularly now there are such well defined economy, mid-price and premium ranges to suit all needs and tastes. Then there is the discounter factor. The vast majority of shoppers, regardless of their background, are now familiar with the Aldi and Lidl offer. Ranges that are almost exclusively dominated by own label. Discounter brands benchmarked to be as good if not better than their branded alternatives. They have helped raise the bar of what we now expect from own label. And the fact their respective sales growths (Aldi 18.3% and Lidl 17.8%) far outstrip what the multiples are doing will drive the push to own label even more. What’s more major retailers are now far more confident about taking out even the best selling brands (noticeably Sainsbury’s) as they increasingly believe their customers don't mind.

Anything else?

The other major driving factor is price. We might not have left the EU yet, but already food and drink prices are going up and with sterling showing no sign of improving they’re likely to go up further still. So it’s only to be expected that the average shopper will turn more to those retailers that have spent the last 20 years continuously telling us they are there to make our lives easier - and cheaper. They have gone out of their way to be part of our lives way beyond our kitchen table. Trust us, they say, to find you the best value holiday, look after your household and car insurance, offer you the best rate credit card or loan deals. If you are prepared to have effectively an own label bank account then any negative perception of a retailer brand is over. If food and drink prices go up further still post-Brexit, then we will expect our retailers to look after us and protect our family spending. Because that’s what they tell us they’re there to do.

Is this just a supermarket phenomenon?

Not at all. Yes, they will benefit the most, but shoppers we are now quite happy accepting or even voluntarily choosing the own label equivalent in all areas of our life. Providing we think it is good quality and good value. It is opening the door for national and local wine specialists to develop their own ranges like never before. Step forward the new “Majestic Loves” £5.99 range. Similarly the on-trade now has the opportunity to really cash in on own label from pubs, through to wine bars, or Michelin-star restaurants.

What are brands doing?Not a lot. There isn’t much they can do faced with the overall economic picture. Instead they are switching their promotional strategy away from big expensive above the line advertising campaigns to more targeted, consumer specific, online and social media campaigns where they can build that individual relationship with their core audience. The big trouble for the major household brands isthat option is not really open to them. So they’re having go toe to toe with the major retailers just to get any of the shelf space that used to be theirs by right. The big winner in all this? The consumer. So when you’ve finished the day job, cash in and get your hands on your favourite retailer’s privates.

* This article was first published as part of the Grapevine publication I produce for the London Wine Fair.

You’ve been reading your Steve Jobs book again? What’s all this about robots and wine?

If you are traditionalist and like to think of wine suppliers and buyers carefully working together tocurate lists and negotiate prices based on their years of experience and tasting skills, then look away now. Computers are already automatically determining ranges and prices of goods in wine and other categories based on equally carefully crafted algorthims. Just look at Amazon. It is not employing members of staff to trawl the aisles of Aldi and Asda to look at their ranges and work out how much, say, their own wines need to be to keep up with the competition. It is using carefully programmed algorithms to trawl the internet, compare prices and change automatically up to half of all the prices on its site every day. There is no need for a Master of Wine or wine buyer with decades of experience to assess sales pattern trends using that model, the algorithm will do that for you.

You’re right it all sounds very Big Brother.

We may not realise it but carefully constructed algorithms are dictating many of the decisions we make on a daily basis. Take the movies you are shown to watch on Netflix. That is based on all your previous searches and are said to result in 60% of the films you watch. Data scientists are even being used by Hollywood to decide which films to make. It’s why Wall Street now employs some 2,000 physicists to keep ahead of the algorithms managing the millions of transactions taking place every day on global stock and currency exchanges. Algorithms that can close a deal a milli second faster than another really are worth their weight in gold.

But are algorithms dictating what wines we are buying and selling?

Yes, and they will do so to a greater extent in the future. You might be working in a company that already has algorithms and bots helping to manage what you do. Particularly if you are involved in ecommerce or using wine recommendation apps. Vivino has just introduced Vivino Market that is using a range of machine learning algorithms to scan the 20 million consumer reviews, 65 million ratings, and 10 million wines it now has on the platform, to give any of its 23 million users a personalised wine recommendation in less than a second.

That’s a potential game changer?

Absolutely and what is particularly worrying for the traditional wine trade is that Vivino is not a wine business. It has from day one been focused on collecting enough data about highly marketable, well heeled consumers to drive a Big Data-fuelled business, one that is now highly attractive to third parties to access. “We had to grow our community first in order to leverage the power of our data,” says founder Heini Zachariassen. An increasing number of other algorithm-based apps and websites have all been set up in the hope of taking their cut from the marketing power of the average wine drinker.

This is too much for me. I can’t keep up...

Sorry, but you have very little choice. There is no place for luddites in modern business. Many of the software tools we innocently use on our smartphones, laptops and desktop computer are jam packed with bots and algorithms effectively controlling what we see and do. Our social media feeds are full of them, which is why we all get to see the same daft videos of cats and dogs on Facebook.

Any other examples?Well, brands, retailers and social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat are increasingly using artificial intelligence and chatbots to engage with users. Beauty brands are now able to “talk” customers through trying different types of make up to selfies posted on a smartphone. If a website takes you through a series of conversational steps to book a table, buy a plane seat, change your password, or order a case of wine then you have probably been interacting with a chatbot to do so.

What else can they do? The most advanced chatbots are being used by brands on messaging apps, like the new Facebook or eBay Shopbot service, to not just “chat” to users, but are capable of learning from each interaction so that they appear even more authentic and personal to the next user. Chatbots are increasingly being used to improve our experience of e-commerce by placing orders knowing what we have previously bought, contacting us throughout the delivery process and then following up to find out what we thought of what we have just bought. Soon bad customer service will be for any transaction where we don’t feel like we’ve had our hand held all the way through the process. Even if by a robot.

What else can we expect

Well, here’s one for you. Facebook is working on new augmented reality technology that could allow us to type, hands-free, up to 100 words a minute just by using our brain waves. All it would involve is for us to wear a device that can read our thought patterns and then write them out for us. I can assure you this article has not been written by a robot...by a robot.

That sounds very philosophical. Have you been raiding the Chinese fortune crackers again?

Oh very funny. Excuse me whilst I churn out one of the most repeated business mantras of modern times and good old Jack Welch's line that if the rate of change going on outside your business is faster than the rate of change inside your business, then chances you’ll soon be going out of business. Or words to that effect. It might sound like classic US management speak, but how many businesses really are able to adapt and cope with changing times? It is one thing saying you have a flexible business model it is another proving it. But there has arguably never been a more important time for companies to look and change what they are doing.

How do you mean?

We are living in such disruptive times. Be it politically, economically or socially. The wine trade, for example, is still coming to terms with last summer's collapse in the pound which continues to wreak havoc across the sector, not just here in the UK but around the world. What's more we've not seen anything yet. The UK has not even triggered the infamous Article 50 and we are already seeing the impact the forthcoming Brexit is having on the economy.

OK I’m all ears...

What is particularly crippling for business is uncertainty and we are up to our neck in it. Talk to any UK business chief, big or small, good or bad and they all say the same thing. The current trading conditions make normal business planning impossible. Particularly for an industry that is 99% reliant on importing the goods it sells from around the world. Goods that are bought not just on how good they are but how much they cost due to the relevant strengths of the currencies where they come from. Drop the equivalent of a bomb on the value of those key currencies and you have the nightmare scenario we all find ourselves in. Yes, currencies move up and down all the time, but not to this degree and over such a length of time.

So what's all this about the need to change?

Well, it stands for reason that if the trading conditions you are operating in have changed completely then it does not make sense to carry on doing business in the same way. It is striking how polarised the wine industry has become in the short period of time since the referendum vote. Split between those companies that have carried on as normal and those businesses that are dramatically changing the way they work. This is not just a post Brexit trend, but it has helped intensify and shine the spotlight even more on how companies are choosing to operate.

In what way?

It is all about taking more control, to coin a phrase, of your own supply chain. In particular taking steps to do all you can to manage the costs at each stage of your own trading circle and where possible put in measures that make them most efficient. That might mean going out and working with producers to make and blend your own wine. It could be bottling more wine in the UK and creating more exclusive labels. Or it might mean looking outside your current markets and opening up new areas, moving in to exports, or shipping wine direct from producers to other customers around the world. It could even mean moving exclusively out of wine and start sourcing, shipping and selling spirits, beers or soft drinks. Standing still and being tossed one way or another based on the whim of the currency markets does not seem the best place to be.

But are you not just advocating change for change’s sake?

Absolutely not. There is no point changing your business model if you are not sure a switch in direction is going to work. It might mean just re-evaluating what you are already doing and making sure every part of the business is operating as efficiently as possible. Tweaking 5% to 10% of what you do could have a much bigger impact on the overall business. But spreading your risk, working in different channels, selling different types of wine or alternative drink categories, gives you flexibility and protects you far more from being over reliant on one channel or a limited number of customers. It might even mean we are not all fixated by any movement in the rate of sterling, the euro or dollar. And there is more change going on there than even Jack Welch could handle.

* This article was first published by Grapevine the fortnightly insights, news and views publication I produce for the London Wine Fair.

Sorry, I don't mean you individually. I mean us collectively. How much time and dedication do we as an industry spend trying to sell and promote wine to the 60 plus age group?

How do you mean?

Let's face it, none of us like getting any older. There's nothing worse than reading the latest consumer survey and realising you are about to slip from one demographic to another. So imagine how the so-called baby boomers feel when they read the latest stats about how many Generation Z or millennials are getting into wine. Not only are they slipping ever deeper in to the last age demographic on the list, they are doing so much pretty much unloved, and from a marketing point of view uncared for.

Where’s the evidence for that?

Well, when it comes to advertising and marketing the 60 plus age group is pretty much forgotten. This is ironic considering they are the people with the largest disposable incomes, the most time on their hands to read and discover more about wine, and even go and explore different wine regions. The vast majority, 70%, are also regular drinkers (ONS), and hardly likely to have their head turned by the latest cranberry infused cider on the market. Yet they are usually the last to be actively marketed to.

Go on then show us some figures...

New research by High50, a website aimed at the over 50 market, claims only 4% think advertising is directly aimed at their generation. A “Marketing to the Over 55s” report from Mailjet found that nearly a third (27%) of those aged over 55 in the UK feel brands are too focused on targeting younger people. A worrying 32% said they never received any relevant offers or promotional material from brands they are interested in buying. It's not just wine, but the same across all major consumer and FMCG categories. In the US, baby boomers dominate spending in 119 out of the top 123 consumer goods sectors, yet only 5% of the “advertising dollar” is spent on them.

There are also a lot more older people?

Now you're getting it. The number of people aged 60 years and over, already outnumber those under 16, and by 2024 up to 20% of the population will be over 65 or retired compared to 17% now. That figure is expected to rise to 25% by 2035 (ONS). They are also increasingly well off, fuelled by payouts from final payment pension schemes, the ONS estimates the average income of a retired couple is 13% higher than they were before the recession in 2008, compared to a 1.2% fall for non-retired households.

But surely wine companies recognise the importance of the older drinker?

Indeed and there are parts of the wine trade that have the grey pound firmly in their sights. The big, direct mail companies have long seen the potential in tying-in loyal customers to monthly payment plans. The Wine Society, Laithwaite’s and Sunday Times Wine Club all have focused wine lists aimed at older, safer customers looking for tried and trusted wines. Laithwaite’s, for example, runs its informercial TV adverts to target the daytime Cash in the Attic audience. Even the average age of customers at Naked Wines and Majestic are nearer 45 to 50 than in their 20s or 30s. Younger people have different priorities than spending over £100 on a case of wine.

But don't we need to concentrate more on attracting the next generation of wine drinker?

Clearly it is in everyone’s interest to bring new and younger drinkers into wine. Which is largely the role of the major mass market supermarket brands. But we should not lose sight of where the bread and butter of our trade is coming from now, and increasingly in the future as we live, and drink, for longer.

So what should we be doing?

Well for all the miles of content that is written about so called hipster and natural wines we need to be also talking and writing about the Chiantis, the Grand Reservas and making sure what you might call the safe Sunday night, costume drama wines are also getting more attention and focus. ITV’s new The Wine Show is very much on the right tracks. The celebrity stars of the show are based in the safety zone of Tuscany and only ever venture out to other traditional Italian holiday hotspots favoured by the 60 plus age groups. They might get wine brought to them to be tasted by the globe-trotting whippersnapper wine expert, Joe Fattorini, but it is in the comfort of a Tuscan villa. If you are looking for inspiration on how to talk, listen and engage with the older consumer then it may be worth going to see the New Old exhibition at London’s Design Museum, which is packed full of creative ideas of how to do exactly that from leading brand, design and advertising agencies. After all, as we have learnt along the way, wisdom really does come with age.

* This article was published as part of the Grapevine newsletter I produce for the London WIne Fair.

The proposed Booker and Tesco merger could have major ramifications on wine and drinks businesses even if they are not directly involved in either company. It also reflects the "rip up the rule book" trading conditions that all businesses are having to face to in these disruptive times.

Sainsbury's decision to introduce its own Chilean private label wine range is one thing. To do so with an uncanny resemblance to the leading Chilean brand Casillero del Diablo from Concha y Toro is quite another. What implications does this have for other wine brands and major retailers?

After years of growth Majestic's Commercial division hit the buffers this year when even its chief executive, Rowan Gormley, said its half year results were "disappointing". Ben Nicholl, the head of the on-trade division, explains how he plans to get to the business back on track, in an article first published on The Buyer

It must have been through some gritted teeth that wine producers took to social media recently to congratulate fellow producer, RR Wine in Chile, for having produced what is being billed as “the best wine in the world”.

During the week you will find Joe Fattorini quite happily blending in to thebackground in his day job as internal communications manager at Bibendum, one of the country's biggest drinksdistributors. But come the weekend, from mid-April, he will be transforming himself in to a prime time TV presenter in his role as wine expert on The Wine Show, ITV1's attempt to bring wine to a mainstream Saturday night audience. It's not quite Ant & Dec, but it will be on your TV just before them.

Here is an article I wrote for the new global bulk wine trading platform, www.vinex.marekt, on the challenges facing the world's wine industry and how successful companies in the future will be the ones who are fleet off foot and able to develop strategies for multiple channels.

If you want to get a clear picture on where the wine industry is heading then look no further than Robin Copestick of Copestick Murray, the wine brand, sourcing and distribution business, that has a sixth sense for sniffing out the best opportunities not just here in the UK but around the world with brands such as I Heart that are now in over 20 countries.

Here is an edited version of an article I produced for Meininger's Wine Business International on the challenges wine brands and regional bodies have when promoting their wines to different cultures around the world. But get it right and you can connect with a global audience.

Here's an article I have produced for Crown Cellars, the wine and spirits arm of Carlsberg, on why the term "premiumisation" in spirits is in danger of losing its meaning, but why bars, pubs, restaurants and suppliers need to go back to why it was such an important trend in the first place.

In this week's Grapevine I take a look at the rise and potential impact lifestyle brands, already so popular in the United States, could have in the UK off-trade. Keeping on the brands theme it also looks outside the wine trade and how specialist design agencies and brand activation companies believe wine businesses need to do build successful wine brands.

Ordering wine is probably the most awkward moment of any night out. So why can't the people tasked with selling it to you, make the whole experience a lot easier and less stressful for everyone? This is an article I wrote for the Crown Cellars trade website, the wine and spirits arm of Carlsberg, offering some pointers potentially for their customers on how we can all be inspiring when talking about wine if we put our minds and our mouths to it.